Gardai hunting for mystery car linked to dad's fatal shooting

Gardai investigating the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Dublin man in Co Kildare last month are hunting for a mystery car linked to the case.

A major investigation is still ongoing into the death of father-of-two Glen Clarke, who was found with a single gunshot wound to his head in a stolen car in the Riverdale Estate in Leixlip on December 2.

Sources have revealed that gardai are attempting to track an Opel Astra car that Clarke and another man were seen in on the night before he died.

A trawl through CCTV by investigators has shown that Clarke was in the car in the Cabra area with another man just hours before he died.

The car was picked up on CCTV near the victim's home and gardai want to speak to the person who was in the car with Clarke in an attempt to piece together his final hours.

Mysterious

Gardai still believe that in "all probability" the gunshot wound suffered by Clarke was "accidentally self-inflicted".

However, all aspects of the mysterious case are still being investigated.

One theory is that Clarke was in Leixlip in relation to an attempted hit on Kinahan cartel target Noel 'Duck Egg' Kirwan (62).

Kirwan was shot dead at his Ronanstown home three weeks after Clarke's body was found, in a shooting that gardai believe was carried out by the cartel.

Detectives have been unable to identify any potential targets in the Riverdale Estate and believe it is far more likely that a potential victim was in Lucan or another nearby area such as Ronanstown.

This week, underworld sources stated that Clarke owed a €30,000 drugs debt and may have been enlisted by the cartel to carry out murders.

There is underworld speculation that Clarke was murdered and may have been set-up by one of his closest associates.

Gardai, however, are not yet treating his death as murder, though it is the subject of a massive investigation.

Officers in Co Kildare initially believed that he had committed suicide after discovering a handgun in the footwell of the stolen silver Vauxhall Zafira that his body was found in.

That car, which had been fitted with false number plates, had been stolen in Blanchardstown last October.

Accident

After a review of the case over the Christmas period, gardai then concluded that the death was "most likely" an accident, but are still investigating every angle in the case.

It has also been reported that Clarke was wearing a boiler suit when his body was discovered.

However in a newspaper interview at the weekend, his mother Carol Darcy denied these claims.

"He didn't shoot himself. I believe my son was murdered," she told the Sunday World newspaper.

"Glen didn't work for the Kinahans. He was on social welfare," she said.

Asked why Clarke would have been in Leixlip that day, or whether she could think of any reason someone would have wanted to shoot him, she said no.

"Glen told me everything and there was no one after him, he'd no enemies. I think the clues to who killed my Glen are still in that car. Somebody killed him," she added.